Dive Brief:

• Google's YouTube is projected to overtake Facebook in the next few months as the website with the second-most traffic from U.S. visitors, according to a study by SimilarWeb reported on by CNBC. 
• YouTube has seen increased traffic and viewership, while Facebook's page visits have declined from 8.5 billion to 4.7 billion in the past two years. Google remains the most visited website, with 15 billion visits in July 2018, though its share has declined with app use and voice search on the rise, according to the study. 
• Yahoo and Amazon round out the top five sites with the most traffic. Amazon is projected to overtake Yahoo in the next few months and has surpassed Yahoo during big shopping months, like December 2017 and July 2018 for its Prime Day sale event. 

Dive Insight:

YouTube being on track to surpass Facebook for visitor traffic reinforces how the social network's explosive growth has started to taper off, while consumers' appetite for digital video only continues to grow. Facebook reported that daily active users in North America remained flat in Q2 and dropped in Europe in earnings reported in late July. 

While Facebook's app traffic is growing, the jump isn't enough to make up for the overall declining users, according to the CNBC report. Facebook is also dealing with the backlash of several privacy issues on the platform, which is causing users greater concern over how their data is handled.

On the other hand, YouTube has been steadily building up its audience as more people cut the cord in favor of streaming services. More than half of adults view content on streaming platforms over traditional linear TV. YouTube claims television screens are its fastest-growing channel, boasting 150 million hours of collective view time per day. Stemming from this, YouTube has ramped up original programming on its Premium paid subscription service, with some early successes like "Cobra Kai," a spinoff of the popular Karate Kid franchise. 

Marketers are investing more in digital video and are enticed by YouTube's nearly 2 billion users, who spend more than an hour a day on the platform. Google has unveiled several new features aimed at making YouTube more brand safe and friendly to adveritsers, including tougher vetting requirements for channels, following several instances over the past year where ads appeared with offensive content. 

Google remaining in the top spot as the most-visited site isn't surprising, as search engines continue to rank highly with consumers. Google led in search, as overall online search platforms grew 3.9% in customer satisfaction in a recent report from the American Customer Satisfaction Index. Overall, customer satisfaction in social media dropped 1.4%, with Facebook also placing low on the list among the major platforms.